General Information Project Overview Curriculum Connections Resource Connections Evaluation

  General Information

  Project Overview

Project Rivers is a combined effort of Stellar Schools and Cable Atlantic along with other partners. St. Mary's School wishes to be part of this project. The project will allow St. Mary's to "adopt" a section of the Waterford River close to our school and will provide students with valuable hands-on experience.

St. Mary's will be responsible for the collection of scientific data about their section of the river to contribute to a database of information on watershed areas.

Our students will focus on other issues pertinent to our section of river such as environmental problems; historical studies; political and social aspects of the role of the river within our community.

Learning about habitats and observing the changes in populations over time is a major focus of the Grade 4 Science Program. Students will be albe to take action to observe and improve a local habitat.

Goals:

• Students will be sensitive to the impact their behaviour has on others and the environment
• Students will learn how to collect scientific data in a real world setting
• Students will gain an appreciation for our waterways and the need to keep them clean

  Curriculum Connections

This project connects directly to the Grade 4 Science Program, Innovations in Science, topic Habitats. Students explore the dependency of organisms on their habitat as well as on the relationships within that habitat. St. Mary's students will observe an aquatic environment in the local area and the living things that are part of that environment.

Learning Outcomes:

Students will:

• recognize how human behavior has affected the environment
• compare the structural features of plants and animals and how they thrive in their habitat
• understand the term habitat
• explore the link between meeting basic needs and habitat
• collect scientific data
• make comparisions
• classify their data according to specific criteria
• organize information for presentation
• graph their data
• present their data in various ways
• participate in group decision making
• develop note taking techniques
• write for specific purposes

  Resource Connections

The Stellar Schools Internet connection will enable our students to share and exchange information with students on the WWW. Students will use a variety of print and nonprint resources including the Internet to research and share their findings.

Students will use:

• Flatbed scanner
• Digital camera (on loan)
• Computers in classrooms and LRC
• Internet connection to WWW
• Web page creation on school web site

  Evaluation

Emphasis will be placed on the degree to which students' attitudes and values have been affected by their participation in this project. The process skills students used and the presentation of data.

The learning outcomes previously listed will be used to determine the level of achievement of students along with observation by the teachers involved.